The gap is widening between Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and the citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the challenge of preventing the use of nuclear weapons while taking steps to reduce and eliminate them.

Kishida should stop distancing Japan from the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, an international agreement on a comprehensive ban on nuclear arms, which reflects the deepest wishes of survivors of the 1945 atomic bombings of the two cities.

Due to an approaching typhoon, Nagasaki’s annual Peace Memorial Ceremony on Aug. 9 was unusually held indoors. In a video message, Kishida basically repeated what he said during the similar ceremony in Hiroshima on Aug. 6.

He again stressed the results produced by this year’s Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima in May and reiterated his commitment to continuing efforts toward the elimination of nuclear arms. As in his addresses to the ceremonies last year, Kishida made no mention of the nuclear ban treaty.

Messages coming from Hiroshima and Nagasaki stand in sharp contrast with Kishida’s remarks.

In his peace declaration during the Aug. 6 ceremony, Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui said, “leaders around the world must confront the reality that nuclear threats now being voiced by certain policymakers reveal the folly of the nuclear deterrence theory.”

Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki, in his own peace declaration, said, “As long as states are dependent on nuclear deterrence, we cannot realize a world without nuclear weapons.”

Both mayors urged the Japanese government to be represented as an “observer” at meetings of countries that have joined the treaty and to sign and ratify the pact as soon as possible.

The calls by the two mayors echo the voices of atomic bomb survivors, or hibakusha.

In a news conference following its meeting with Kishida on Aug. 6, a hibakusha group in Hiroshima criticized the prime minister’s policy stance. Members expressed strong indignation about the G-7 leaders’ Hiroshima Vision on Nuclear Disarmament--one of the documents released by the leaders--which supported the strategy of nuclear deterrence.

The government’s policy for promoting nuclear disarmament focuses on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which has been signed by both nuclear and non-nuclear countries, and envisions serving as a “bridge” between the two camps with the aim of reducing the roles of nuclear arms.

But nuclear powers have neglected to fulfill their obligations under the NPT to engage in nuclear arms reduction talks. Meanwhile, the risk of nuclear war has risen with some countries threatening to use nuclear arms.

The nuclear ban treaty, established through cooperation between non-nuclear nations and hibakusha, is designed to complement the NPT.

Kishida admits that Japan has a duty to persuade nuclear powers, which have not signed the nuclear prohibition treaty, to move toward joining the pact.

If so, Japan has every reason to participate in the conferences of signatories as an observer as a first step to serve as a bridge between the two camps.

Tokyo should view the nuclear ban treaty as an “entrance” to the process of eliminating nuclear arms, not as an “exit” from it, and as a pact that is a vital complement to the NPT.

The nuclear ban treaty also includes provisions concerning assistance to victims of nuclear tests around the world and environmental remediation. Japan should contribute to humanitarian aid under the treaty by using its experience and expertise as a nation that suffered wartime nuclear attacks.

In a meeting of Diet members to discuss related topics held on Aug. 5 in Hiroshima, Komeito, the junior coalition partner of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, and six opposition parties agreed that Japan should participate in meetings of state parties to the nuclear ban treaty as an observer.

But the LDP demurred, saying that could intensify the confrontation between nuclear and nonnuclear nations.

However, Izumi Nakamitsu, U.N. undersecretary-general and high representative for disarmament affairs, pointed out that a “serious division” exists among nuclear powers.

The second meeting of state parties to the treaty is scheduled to begin at the end of November. It is time for Kishida to decide on Japan’s participation as an observer.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Aug. 10